Valiant
by JPalmerGirl
Summary: Jimmy Palmer wasn't that person, the person that bad things happened too. Jimmy Palmer never did anything excited, Jimmy was just the M.E assistant, he wasn't supposed to get in danger. But he did, he went to med. school that day, the day a shooting took place. Now he's a hostage with his blood sugar slipping lower and lower. Jimmy was never supposed to be in danger, until he was.


It was a normal day for Jimmy, hauling his books around the medical school, running to class after class. It wasn't supposed to be different, it was supposed to be like that. The Georgetown school of medicine was always like that. He was thinking about something stupid, probably naming the bones and muscles in the neck and head as he scurried off to his class. He reminded himself that after his next class, he had to get into his car and drive to NCIS and he had to grab one thing to eat on the way. His pump had been going all day and he knew that if he wanted to avoid a low blood sugar that he would have to eat soon. He was already feeling slightly lightheaded. But still he pushed on, running into the auditorium for his next class.

When the class was over, everyone else had left except for a few assorted students like Jimmy himself who wanted to ask his professor a question about the homework and the test the next day. He was in the middle of doing so when it happened, a gunshot. It left Jimmy's ears ringing and everyone in the room had frozen completely. It was if everybody was afraid to breathe, afraid to think, afraid to do anything but stare at one another. Jimmy met eyes with several students he'd never even talked too before.

One was an older girl with dark curls like his own and blue eyes, with a large freckle under her left eye. Another was a black boy with a shocked scowl on his face, he had a girl clutching onto his arm. She was a redhead with tears brimming in her purple contacted eyes. Standing a little ways off from the girl was a boy with sandy hair falling over his brown eyes, his mouth was agape and he looked as if he was going to pass out. Jimmy wanted to follow suit.

It was the second and third shots that spurred everybody from their stupor. Their professor, a thin balding man with a dark goatee, yelled at them to get behind his desk. Black-boy dragged Purple-contacts behind the desk and Freckle-girl practically hurdled over there. Jimmy was about to dart over there as well, when he noticed that Sandy-hair hadn't moved from his spot, he looked utterly petrified. So Jimmy ran towards him, staggering slightly as another shot echoed down the halls...followed by a girl's screech. They could hear their fellow students running down the halls as fast as they could. It was the sound of notebooks slipping from hands, of pencils skittering across the halls, forgotten by their owners in their hurry.

Sandy-hair looked up as Jimmy's hand clamped on his wrist. It was a look of terror and confusion. He made a deep keening noise in the back of his throat, but Jimmy just half-carried, half-dragged him towards the desk at the front of the auditorium. He shoved Sandy-hair down before throwing himself down after him. That's where they sat, staring at each other once again. Three more gunshots...three more silent screams that nobody heard. Jimmy wanted to cry, he wanted to call his mother and Clark, to tell them that he loved him more than words could ever express. He wanted to call Dr. Mallard and tell him how amazing he was...and that couldn't be into work that day.

"We're going to be fine..alright?"

Their professor whispered to them, the only sound in a silent room where nobody wanted to breathe. Purple-contacts was sobbing silently into Black-boy's shirt and he had his arms wrapped around her. Jimmy could only assume that they were together. Jimmy felt his stomach clench as a hunger pang shot through him, he felt dizzy and his hands were slick with sweat, that was when he remembered about his plans to get food. The young M.E cursed inside his mind, now they were stuck in here without any food and Jimmy was having the beginnings of a Hypo. Just great.

"...you alright?"

Jimmy looked up in surprise as he realized that Sandy-hair had a hand on his shoulder and was trying to talk to him. He quickly nodded and pasted a smile to his face, tugging down the sleeve of his sweater, covering his Medical ID bracelet that proclaimed his diabetes. He remembered how he'd told Team Gibbs that he only had 'mild' diabetes. That was a filthy lie. When you have to take a needle multiple times everyday...that isn't mild. He just didn't want them to worry about him, he dealt with enough of that already.

"I'm fine."

Jimmy whispered and Sandy-hair raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth as if he was going to retort otherwise. But the doors to the auditorium burst open and a loud , gruff male voice yelled, accompanied by the heavy cocking of a gun.

"STAY ON THE FLOOR!"

Jimmy froze and Sandy-hair's hand on his shoulder became a clamp as cold as stone. Jimmy wanted to comfort them, to comfort Purple-contacts as she sobbed into Black-boy, to whisper gentle nothings of comfort to Sandy-hair, to gently tell Freckle-girl that it would be alright. He wanted to comfort these unlikely strangers that had become his companions in fear. He didn't even know their names and he doubted that they knew his.

"Keep your hands where I can see them!"

That was the first time they saw their shooter, it was a bald, middle-aged man whom nobody knew. It was a face that didn't stand out in the crowd, a face you could've passed a million times and you still couldn't remember later on, just what his nose looked like, just what shape his eyes were. It was so easily forgotten.

"Now, this is how things are going to work, or I'm going to put a bullet through each of your skulls. Do you understand? Good. Now, you are now my hostages. You see, I don't want to go to jail, not again. So if I agree to return some of you alive, they'll give me a plead bargain. So...you...give me your cellphone."

The shooter motioned towards Purple-contacts and her hands were shaking as she pulled out a pink and purple cased iPhone and handed it to the man. The shooter gave her a sickeningly sweet smile and walked away with her cellphone in hand, punching in a few numbers and holding it to his ear. Jimmy could clearly hear what the shooter was saying so he knew that everyone else could too. He was calling 911 and the police, Jimmy's stomach clenched again and this time he wrapped a pair of shaking arms around his middle. Giving a low and soft moan. He was really cold and it felt like his heart was fluttering in his chest, beating against his rib cage painfully.

"...your names. Wake him up!"

It took Jimmy a moment to realize that the shooter was glaring at him, putrid hate scorching in his dark shadowy eyes. Jimmy gulped and whispered, his words slightly slurred as he tried to ask what exactly had been asked of him.

"Wha-?"

"Your name!"

Sandy-hair hissed at him, eyes wide with worry as he looked at his fellow med. student. There was obliviously something horribly wrong with him and he was trying desperately to figure out what.

"J-Jimmy Palmer."

Jimmy wheezed softly and the rest of the students took the queue to say their own names as well. Purple-contacts went first, her tears drying on her face and making unattractive splotch marks.

"Ella Sanderson..."

"Jacob Davis..." _Sandy-hair_.

"D'Monte Rivera..." _Black-boy._

"Dr. James Conners." _Their professor. _

"Sarah Baxter." _Freckle-girl._

The shooter smiled again and reported all their names back into Ella's cellphone. Jimmy gave another low moan and shivered as a few chills shook his body. That was when he remembered about his pump. He was already sinking lower and lower and the pump was only shoving him down faster. In his hazy mind, he realized that he had to get rid of the pump. Jimmy began to fumble with the hem of his shirt, his numb fingers unable to get a good grip on the stupid fabric, finally he just yanked it upwards, popping a few buttons off the shirt. But he didn't care.

He heard someone give a sharp intake of breath as they saw the long stream of tubing exiting from where the pump was inserted in his hip. His fingers found the tip of the insert and Jimmy whimpered before ripping the site off of the body. He cried out sharply, blood welling out from where the pump had been in his skin.

"Shit. What is that?!"

D'Monte gasped from the other side of him, and Jacob gave a low moan and a long stream of curses, gently pulling the tubing from Jimmy's quivering hands and pulling the pump from his pocket, rolling up the tubing gently.

"Insulin pump. Jimmy...are you a diabetic? Are you having a Hypo?"

Jacob whispered and Jimmy nodded into his folded legs. Tears brimming in the corners of his eyes, could they really get any more screwed? Jimmy's blood sugar was getting lower and lower and they were hostages for a crazy shooter. He just hoped that Dr. Mallard wouldn't be too mad or upset at him when he died.

-PlaceSkip-

Team Gibbs were working at their desks in the bullpen when Ducky came hurriedly out of the elevator. His eyes were wide and seemingly terrified as he looked around. Gibbs looked at the older man with worry as Ducky came closer.

"Are you alright, Duck?"

"Fine, Jethro. I'm just worried, Mr. Palmer left his emergency glucose tablets here by mistake and he hasn't arrived yet. I just hope he didn't pass out somewhere. That boy really doesn't know how to take care of himself. He's a wonderful assistant, just too much of a people pleaser. Would it really kill him to tell other people of his problems sometime...?"

"Duck..."

Ducky rambled on in his worried state d Gibbs cut him off gently, looking at the oversized purple bottle of 'Glu-tabs' clutched in Ducky's hand. He mentally cursed Palmer as well, for making Ducky worry and for forgetting things that he obviously needed. He reminded himself to give the young M.E a well deserved head-slap when he arrived at NCIS. That boy...suddenly Gibbs' thoughts were cut off as McGee's stammering voice sounded off to his right.

"Boss...where does Palmer go to school?"

Just by the tone of McGee's voice, Gibbs knew that something was horribly wrong. But for the life of him, Gibbs just couldn't figure out what had scared or worried his agent so badly. And why did it matter where Palmer went to school?

"Georgetown medical school."

Ducky whispered and McGee's face grew even paler until he could've passed for a ghost. He heard the young agent curse fluently under his breath as he pulled up a newscast on the screen in front of them. It was of Georgetown medical school swarmed with police cars and ambulances, there were students running out of the building as fast as they could and a young female Newscaster's voice began speaking.

"Currently...most of the students and teachers have been evacuated and accounted for, some are dead, even more are wounded. We have a single hostage situation however, a lone gunman seems to be holding hostage four students and one professor. Their names are Dr. James Conners," a picture of the professor pulled up, "D'Monte Rivera," another picture, "Ella Sanderson," new picture, "Jacob Davis," picture, "Sarah Baxter", picture, "and Jimmy Palmer." They pulled up the picture that was on Jimmy's NCIS ID card, Jimmy had always hated that picture of himself. "One of the students is rumored to be in the middle of a medical emergency." The newscaster reported.

Gibbs felt utterly sick to his stomach and Ducky gave a low moan and clutched at his chest. It made Gibbs lunge forwards and make sure that his friend wasn't about to have another heart attack.

"Shit...Palmer...holy fucking shit..."


End file.
